pepperhead212
Executive Chef
I made a relatively simple vegetable side dish, to serve with Indian foods. I have all those bitter melons I have to use, and this will be reheatable, for me to take it to an Indian friend's house tomorrow. I can still smell that browned onion smell throughout the house!
I cut open both varieties, and as you can see, the round one is definitely more developed, with fairly large seeds, while the long one is not very developed. The white pith, that I scooped out of all of them, didn't taste bitter at all, and when I sampled the different ones, in the cooked dish, neither seemed more bitter, or different at all in flavor. The finished dish was not very bitter, with a balance of sweet, from the jaggery and onion, and some sour from the amchur. They will definitely like this, and I'll make one of those chutneys to take over, too - maybe a tomato one.
The dish is a little salty, but I must have salted too much, and too long (I left it while getting the onion and everything else ready, and some other things around the kitchen), with that 20 minute salting called for in the recipe. Next time I'll use just 1/2 tsp, and make sure I don't go too long.
At first, the vegetables weren't browning at all, so I bumped the heat up to 3 the last few minutes, which is more like a med-low, and they started browning some. Then the last 2 minutes with the seasonings were on medium - 4 on this induction burner. I only ate a little, but it will reheat well, I'm sure.
Here's the recipe:
https://www.tarladalal.com/onion-and-karela-sabzi-7452r
Bitter melons halved, round Big Top, and long Number One, getting ready to scoop out seeds. by pepperhead212, on Flickr
Onion and Bitter Melons for the sabzi, cooked 10 minutes, with no browning. by pepperhead212, on Flickr
Finished Onion and Bitter Melon sabzi. by pepperhead212, on Flickr
I cut open both varieties, and as you can see, the round one is definitely more developed, with fairly large seeds, while the long one is not very developed. The white pith, that I scooped out of all of them, didn't taste bitter at all, and when I sampled the different ones, in the cooked dish, neither seemed more bitter, or different at all in flavor. The finished dish was not very bitter, with a balance of sweet, from the jaggery and onion, and some sour from the amchur. They will definitely like this, and I'll make one of those chutneys to take over, too - maybe a tomato one.
The dish is a little salty, but I must have salted too much, and too long (I left it while getting the onion and everything else ready, and some other things around the kitchen), with that 20 minute salting called for in the recipe. Next time I'll use just 1/2 tsp, and make sure I don't go too long.
At first, the vegetables weren't browning at all, so I bumped the heat up to 3 the last few minutes, which is more like a med-low, and they started browning some. Then the last 2 minutes with the seasonings were on medium - 4 on this induction burner. I only ate a little, but it will reheat well, I'm sure.
Here's the recipe:
https://www.tarladalal.com/onion-and-karela-sabzi-7452r
Bitter melons halved, round Big Top, and long Number One, getting ready to scoop out seeds. by pepperhead212, on Flickr
Onion and Bitter Melons for the sabzi, cooked 10 minutes, with no browning. by pepperhead212, on Flickr
Finished Onion and Bitter Melon sabzi. by pepperhead212, on Flickr